


I wish people were like machines

by Selana



Category: Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Illnesses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-04
Updated: 2014-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-03 09:39:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1739963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Selana/pseuds/Selana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for this prompt from mamarenren: "Avengers - Stony - Steve meets a kid with a lot of the same disabilities that he had as a kid, and Tony watches the interaction."</p><p>I hope you like what I made of it, even if it took me quite a while.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I wish people were like machines

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks, as always, to my wonderful beta [faeleverte](http://archiveofourown.org/users/faeleverte) who keeps telling me how much she likes my writing and so encourages me to write more. And of course she helped to iron out the wrinkles, that inevitably happen in writing.
> 
> Please leave comments to let me know what you think of this. I always love to hear from my readers, even if it is criticism - as long as it stays polite. You don't have to like my writing, you can certainly tell me when you don't like it, but mind your language, please. I have seen on too many other writer's works that they got insulted for not writing the story the reader imagined. If that happens here, I will delete your comment without warning
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own them, I just wish I would. So I just borrow them for some fun

“I can’t, Tony.” Steve looked apologetical at Tony. “You know that I promised to visit the children’s hospital today.”

“But tomorrow I have to leave for Tokyo, Pepper won’t let me get out of it.” Tony sounded like a petulant child even to his own ears, but he didn’t care. “I want to spend the day with you.”

“Then come with me, the kids will be excited to see Iron Man.”

“I don’t think so. Me and children is not a good combination. Especially not sick children. What am I supposed to do with them?” Tony crossed his arms and pouted, which caused Steve to roll his eyes at him.

“You’ll be fine. Just talk to them, or read a book, or tell them about science. They don’t care what you do, as long as you spend some time with them.”

“Really, Steve. That’s not a good idea.”

“Stop complaining!” Steve grabbed Tony’s hand and pulled him towards the elevator. “We’re taking my bike, you can bring the suitcase armour if you want. The kids will love that.”

Tony let himself be dragged along, and as Steve had suggested picked up his suitcase armour on the way through his workshop to the garage. Along with Steve’s neatly folded uniform it was stored in the saddle bags, then they donned leather jackets and helmets -- always stored near the bikes, in case Tony wanted to go on an impromptu ride. Why waste time to go upstairs, just to get something suitable to wear?

It was nice to ride the Harley with Steve, no matter where they were going. Tony still didn’t really want to entertain sick children, it always made him awkward when he felt out of his depth and completely helpless. He might be a genius and could build pretty much everything if he put his mind to it, but a cure against even one of the many illnesses that still plagued mankind? Not his area at all. But for now, he was leaning against Steve’s muscular back, moving with him, enjoying the smooth ride -- not even New York City traffic could make it any less fun.

Way too soon they arrived at the hospital, were shown to a room where they met some doctors and nurses -- and where Steve changed into his Captain America outfit. It turned out he had brought his sketchbook and a bunch of empty ones with a packet of coloured pencils each.

“You gonna draw with the kids?” 

“If they want to.” Steve shrugged. “Never hurts to be prepared.”

“And what am I supposed to do with them?” Tony began to panic slightly.

“You’ll think of something. Come on, we won’t let them wait.” 

Steve took hold of Tony’s hand again and didn’t leave him much choice but to follow. At the last moment Tony remembered to pick up his armour and take it along.

Soon they were surrounded by excited children. Before long, Steve was dragged away and Tony was left alone with a dozen or so little boys and girls. Their eyes were shining, and they kept smiling at him, and somehow, in between all their excited questions about his arc reactor and suit and bad guys he’d fought, he forgot that they were ill, that he could not help them. Tony even enjoyed their company, if nothing else they were a captivated audience for his tales. 

And when he showed them the suitcase armour, activated it and demonstrated how it worked, they were completely smitten. One of the older girls, who had an artificial leg, even began to discuss with him how the technology he used in his suits might be adjusted for prosthetic limbs -- something he had thought about before. He made a mental note to get together with some medical doctors to figure something out. He had the technology, but not the medical knowledge to properly do the research himself. 

Tony found himself alone in the room after about two hours, the children had left one by one when they were exhausted by all the excitement of the afternoon. Steve was nowhere to be seen, so Tony walked down the corridor, suitcase armour in hand. He peered into open doors, knocked at closed ones to glance inside, no trace of Steve. Almost at the end of the corridor though, he spotted Steve sitting at the edge of the bed of a young girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old.

The girl was very pale, almost as white as the bed sheets. The wires sneaking out from under the blanket, hooked up to beeping machines were a stark contrast to her skin. A clear mask covered her nose and mouth, but she still struggled to breathe. Her right hand almost vanished in Steve’s, whose thumb absently stroked her knuckles while he talked to her. Neither of them had noticed Tony yet. He didn’t dare to enter, it felt like he would be intruding into something private.

“Just don’t give up.” Steve’s voice was soft and he had a faraway expression on his face. “I know, it feels bad, as if you’re never going to take a proper breath again. But it will get better.” He gestured at the machines the girl was hooked up to. “Look, all of this is here to help you. And I’m sure the doctor’s will have you on your feet in no time. You just need to keep fighting.” Steve swallowed, then continued. “You know, I’ve had asthma as well, and so many other things. And there were no inhalers back then, none of those machines that help you to breathe more easily. And I made it through, so you will too. How could you not?” Steve gently squeezed her hand and pushed an errant strand of hair out of her face. “Promise me you’ll keep fighting, will you?”

The girl smiled up at him, nodded and squeezed his hand back. Tony almost felt like an intruder and took a step back, tried to vanish into the hallway unseen.

“Hey Tony, there you are!” Steve’s head turned to the door and he locked gazes with Tony. “Come and meet Tania. She can’t speak much, because she has trouble breathing, her asthma is really bad at the moment.” The girl -- no, Tania, she had a name, of course she had a name -- looked at him as well.

“Hey Tania.” Tony stepped closer to the bed, but didn’t dare to touch the girl; she looked so fragile. “You know, Cap here is right, the docs will have you out of here in no time at all.” He could feel himself smile, kind of on autopilot, even if he felt more like running away than anything else. 

“We have to go now, but I’ll be back next week.” Steve nodded at the nightstand, where he had placed a notepad and pencils. “If you’re still here, I hope you’ll show me some drawings you’ve made.”

Tanja nodded enthusiastically, then curled up when she had to cough violently. Steve stroked her hair through it, spoke calming nonsense and reminded her to breathe until she had stopped coughing and relaxed back into the bed.

“Goodbye, Tania.” Steve stood up and gave Tania’s hand a last squeeze, then turned to Tony. “You ready to go?”

Tony lifted his suitcase armour a bit and nodded. “Sure, got everything important.” He looked back at Tania and gave her a reassuring smile and a little wave of his free hand. “Bye.” Tony saw her wave back before he resolutely turned towards the door. “You coming, Cap?”

He didn’t look back, but could hear Steve’s footsteps behind him, then Steve fell into step with him. They exchanged a look, but neither of them said a word. Not while Steve changed back to his street clothes, not during the ride back to the tower - which Tony still enjoyed very much. He just didn’t know what to say, his mind was racing. He tried to imagine Steve small and fragile and ill, tried to figure out something, anything, that would help children like Tania. Tony felt so helpless. Here he was, genius and all, but he couldn’t even help one little girl -- had even wanted to run away from her, could barely look at her. And then there was Steve, helping her, encouraging her -- doing everything Tony couldn’t. Why couldn’t people be like machines? Logical, fixable?

“Tony, what’s wrong?” Steve’s voice dragged Tony out of his thoughts when they were in the elevator.

“Nothing.” He sighed. “I told you, it’s not a good idea to take me to a children’s hospital.”

Steve pulled him into a warm hug and held tight until Tony relaxed in his arms. “Talk to me.”

“I don’t know.” Tony wrapped his arms around Steve’s waist, pulled him even closer. “It makes me feel so useless to see sick people, especially kids. I want to help them, fix them - and all I can do is throw money at the hospitals.”

“But that is helping them.” Steve pressed a kiss on Tony’s head. “Without your money, the doctors couldn’t help as many kids as they do. And without your money, there would be nothing to buy new monitors and respirators and whatever all those machines are called.”

“I just wish people were more like machines, that I could fix what’s wrong with them.” Tony mumbled against Steve’s chest.

“Don’t we all?” Steve’s arms tightened for a moment around Tony. “But you’re a genius, I’m sure you can figure something out. Maybe you can help improve some of the machines? Make them more effective? Or more affordable? I’m sure Bruce can help you with the medical aspects.”

“You’re right.” Tony extricated himself from the hug. “But not tonight. I want to spend the rest of this day with you, on the sofa, watching a silly movie or two and just be together.”

Steve smiled at him. “I’m sure we can arrange that. Pizza? And popcorn for later?”

“You have the best ideas, even if you drag me to hospitals with you.” Tony smiled back and pulled Steve down for a gentle kiss. “But maybe we should finally leave the elevator, my living room is much more comfortable.”

They both had to laugh at that and shared another kiss before stepping out of the elevator that long since had arrived at Tony’s penthouse.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [tumblr](http://selana1505.tumblr.com) for the occasional bit of writing, a lot of fandom related posts and other random things


End file.
